Fig. 2: Endothelial dysfunction in severe acute COVID-19 is an indirect effect of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
From: Distinct tissue niches direct lung immunopathology via CCL18 and CCL21 in severe COVID-19
a Multiplex microscopy immunofluorescence (IF) images depicting smooth muscle actin (αSMA) in blue, CD31 in cyan, pancytokeratin (PCK) in magenta and ER-TR7 in yellow in one representative field of view (FOV) in lung tissue for each disease group. b Dot plot of the absolute cell numbers per FOV of endothelial cells, epithelial cells and fibroblasts in each disease group. Various filled-symbols represent distinct donors. Data (M ± SD) are analyzed by two-way ANOVA with Fisher’s LSD test, F (3, 84) = 8.124, p ˂ 0.0001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file. (a, b) (n = 32 FOVs). See also Supplementary Figs. 1B and 2A–C. c Ultrastructural image of autopsy lung tissue from one acute donor shows a large vessel with multiple detached endothelial cells within its lumen (white stars). Digitally magnified region of the boxed area shows a detaching endothelial cell. (n = 6 acute lung samples). d Heat map display of the average expression level of several endothelia-related transcripts for all samples in each disease group, as analyzed by spatial transcriptomics (ST) (n = 12 tissue sections). e Orthogonal slice of a light sheet fluorescence microscopy (LSFM) acquisition of an acute COVID-19 lung sample stained with ER-TR7 (yellow). Tissue autofluorescence (magenta) allows visualization of a large vessel with a macrothrombus (yellow and magenta) attached to the vessel wall. (n = 4 samples). See also Supplementary Movie 3.
